February 1, 2024It’s a brand-new year and I’ve been meaning to write something new for a while, but have been sidetracked by my own shit and unrest. Happily, though, my formerly troubled daughter is making me so very proud. Every day, I feel prouder and prouder, and worry less and less.
August 3, 2023It’s now halfway through summer 2023, and I feel wonderful about my dear daughter’s progress in life. She took the position as a property manager in a West Coast city, encouraged and supported by her older sister (and OS’s boyfriend). It was a process, though, wow. Her sister flew over, helped her pack and sort, and together they drove a rental truck 11 hours to the new place. There were still a few days left on the old…
May 30, 2023 Wow, time goes fast and things change on a dime (but cost a LOT of dollars!). My dear daughter is halfway to 30 years old, alive and healthy, and somewhat stable. She doesn’t talk to me much, but there’s been no falling out or anything earth-shattering (that I’m aware of). That’s not to say she hasn’t had her issues and pissed me off here and there. Job: She got a job 7 months ago at a software…
10/24/22 So here we are again. Six months after the whole world seemed to be full of rainbows and puppy dogs again. My dear younger daughter was on her way to success–new job, new apartment, good health, clean and sober. Well, to make a long story short, the time off marijuana wasn’t enough to pass a drug test for the new company, and it was a dealbreaker. Not only that, the company she was working for was a subcontractor of…
5/25/22 It’s absolutely amazing what can change in just a month. In the last four weeks, my formerly troubled daughter has gone from being in a toxic relationship and on the brink of losing her footing at work because of her personal life to living in her own apartment and being offered a new job in a large, multi-state company with a salary almost 20K more than she earns now! First, she recognized how unhealthy her relationship was. He was…
4/9/22 A few weeks ago, my husband and I were sitting at home after the workday, deciding if we were going to hike, work out, or go to yoga. Just a low-key, easy evening. It was interrupted by an emotional call from my formerly (and still sometimes) troubled daughter’s boyfriend, whom she lives with. He said he didn’t know what to do. They had gotten into a fight in the car after he picked her up from work and she…
12/16/2021 I’m embarrassed to say that I lost time because I assumed something that wasn’t true, and it dampened my mood, affected my communication with my husband, and made me feel guilty and a little shameful. I thought for a whole week that my younger daughter was ignoring me. She wasn’t picking up my morning calls and wasn’t texting me back from my many, many messages. I thought she blew me off for the theater and was mad at me….
12/10/2021 I’ve been reading through my posts from over the years, and I see some disturbing patterns both in myself and my daughter. No matter how old she is, and she’s two days away from 28 years old, she has a fully orchestrated routine. In the last year and a half, she’s definitely matured, so I give her that. Her good periods last much longer, and her reasoning skills are much better. Where she just can’t get it together is…
4/5/2021 That’s right. My formerly troubled daughter lost her 58-year-old father right after Valentine’s Day 2021. He died from a heart attack as he arrived home from the gym. It’s enormously heartbreaking. I’m even sad even though I haven’t seen him or talked to him for so many years. My daughters’ already complicated and confusing lives are now much more complicated and confusing. And they’re no closer to being friends, or even civil with each other. The older sister was…
2/13/2019 My troubled daughter (I still habitually label her this way) is back in town and I’ve been ruminating over this new situation. She arrived two days ago after driving 1,500 miles straight through with her location services on but turned them off as soon as she got to her boyfriend’s house. I received one text to tell me she was soooo tired, and haven’t heard anything since. Hello? I’m here. I’m your mother. Tap, tap. Is this thing on? So here I am, feeling: Excitement: I…